It's A Really Nice Scarf
by Lils
Summary: PreRent. April’s having some issues with Roger. Mark’s having some issues with Maureen. The two of them bond. Share a moment. Become friends. Somewhat random. With some nice Mark scarf love involved. One Shot.


_Summary: _Pre-Rent. April's having some issues with Roger. Mark's having some issues with Maureen. The two of them bond. Share a moment. Somewhat random. Some nice Mark scarf love involved. One Shot.

_Disclaimer: _I don't own Rent.

_A/N:_ I don't know what I was thinking. I was listening to tick, tick… BOOM! and randomly I this came to mind.

_It's A Really Nice Scarf_

April gazed carefully out of the window in the loft scanning the streets for Roger. He had left a few hours ago. Another fight. They'd been doing that a lot lately. She would yell, and he would leave. Just like he had done this afternoon. He left. She came to the loft hoping to find him, but no one had been there when she came in. And now she was simply looking outside to see if he would come.

"Roger, where are you?" she asked quietly. "I can't keep doing this."

"Doing what?" came a voice from behind her. She turned around. Mark was here. Of course, Mark was here. He lived here. She was the one who didn't live here. She had convinced Roger to move in with her a few weeks ago, but that hadn't been going to well lately.

"Nothing," she answered not really wanting to talk to Mark about her problems. She didn't know Mark very well. Or Maureen. Or Collins. Or Benny. They were Roger's friends, not hers. She just knew Roger.

"Have you seen Roger?" she asked.

"No," he answered. "You two have another fight?"

"Yeah, we did actually," she admitted after quickly debating whether or not to tell him. It's not like it was a big secret. They fought all the time. Well, ever since Roger hadmoved in with her.

"So did Maureen and I," Mark responded unexpectedly. He did look a bit beaten up.

"What happened?" she asked with curiosity. And happiness mixed in with some guilt and sympathy. She was looking forward to talking about something other than Roger and herself, but she still felt bad for him.

Mark set down his camera that he had been holding and stared at it a moment before he turned to look at April again.

"I'm not really sure," Mark answered with a pensive look on his face as April let out a small laugh.

"You don't know?" she asked. She felt slightly ashamed for laughing at Mark. But Maureen was mad at him, and he didn't even know why. She couldn't help herself; she found it funny.

"I was supposed to meet her at the Life Café, and when I got there, she started yelling at me for doing something or not doing something. I'm still not really sure," he answered with an innocent look on his face.

"Maybe she's jealous," April suggested after a minute, even though she knew Maureen was not the type.

"Of who?" Mark asked looking confused.

"Your camera," she replied after a few seconds. "You always have it with you. A crazy person like Maureen could get jealous."

Mark opened his mouth either to protest that he didn't always have his camera or that Maureen wasn't insane. But he thought the better of it since he realized that both of things that she said were basically true. Well, except for the Maureen being jealous part. She was crazy, not necessarily jealous of his camera. He did take his camera everywhere though.

"Or maybe your scarf. It's a nice scarf," she said teasingly as he gave her a small smile.

"Yeah, I think the only reason she started dating me was because of my scarf," he answered with some sarcasm. Sarcasm wasn't his strongest suit, but he could manage to convey some.

"What was your fight about?" Mark asked. Hewas now the one who was eager to change the subject away from himself and his possessions.

She turned towards the window again and looked at the slowly setting sun. It had been much higher when she first arrived. Had she really been here that long? She tried to remember what their fight had been about this afternoon. All of the fights had started to bleed together lately. They were getting harder to distinguish from the other.

"I don't remember," she said, turning around to face him.

Mark raised his eyebrows and gave her a disbelieving look.

"I don't! They're all starting to feel the same," she said, feeling the need to defend herself. She wasn't sure why she felt the need to defend herself. She barely knew Mark.

"Oh," Mark responded. He nodded his head with a look of understanding that told her that he had clearly had the same problem in the past.

"Yeah," she responded awkwardly as she came to a new understanding with Mark. She could tell he had been through the same thing or something similar. Maybe not with Maureen. But he had been through it before. It was a comforting thought. She was starting to like Mark more. He was easier to talk to than Roger. Less yelling involved. More talking. Sometimes it was just easier to talk to a friend than a lover. A friend. That was something new. Maybe something she needed too.

"Maybe she's jealous of Roger," she said to her new friend after a few minutes.

"Who?" Mark asked sounding confused.

"Maureen," she responded simply. "Maybe she's jealous of Roger."

"What? Why?" Mark asked looking completely thrown by what April said, while she was struggling to stop herself from laughing at the bewildered look on Mark's face.

"Well, you two," she paused for a minute, trying to find the right words to say. "You are best friends _and_ roommates."

"But he moved out. And in with you! We're not…" Mark said looking extremely flustered by what she had just said.

"You're not having insane amounts of sex with each other?" she asked with the casual tone of someone asking about the weather.

"No!" Mark replied quickly. Roger was his best friend. Since the fourth grade. He was his best friend. He considered Roger to be like the brother he never had. It was disturbing for Mark to think of his almost brother and himself together. Doing… stuff. Together. Mark was starting to feel slightly sick.

"No. That's gross! That's like incestuous!" Mark said.

"What? You're related?" April asked looking a bit stunned and hurt by this new piece of information. Neither of them had ever mentioned being related before.

"No," Mark said, his face tinted with pink. "He just feels like family to me."

"And you're very close with your family?" she saidin an extremely suggestive tone.

"No!" Mark defended again. It was even more disturbing to think in terms of his actually family. "Roger and I aren't like that. I'm not like that with anyone I'm related to!"

"Don't tell me. Tell Maureen. If you say you're not having insane amounts of sex with my boyfriend or your family, then I believe you Marky," she responded as Mark winced slightly at her words.

"Don't call me Marky," he responded.

"Sorry," she answered lightly as she made a mental note to not call him Marky.

"Maybe, you're the jealous one," Mark told her. "If you think Roger and I are…"

"Having insane amounts of sex," she interrupted.

"Right," he said, still not feeling comfortable with the insane amounts of sex with his friend idea. "Well, maybe you're jealous of me."

"You figured me out. I am so jealous of you, Mark Cohen. You… and your really nice scarf!" she said in mock defeat realizing he was partially right. Well, not the part about being jealous of Mark's scarf. But she was jealous of Mark. Of all of them. They all knew Roger so well. Mark had known him since the fourth grade. He had known Collins and Maureen since college. And he had known Benny for the past three years. She had only known him for the past eight months. And she still didn't know him very well.

"It is a really nice scarf," Mark agreed.

"It is," she replied. "Why else would I be jealous?"

"Because it couldn't possibly have anything to do with me," came a new, sarcastic voice. They both turned to see the man who had spoken standing a few feet away from them.

"Roger!" April said looking a little embarrassed and shocked as she saw her boyfriend standing in the doorway. "How long have you been standing there?"

"I came in around insane amounts of sex," he answered with a small, sarcastic smirk. He was clearly amused by the conversation that had been occurring.

"I guess you came over here to have insane amounts of sex with Mark then," she said teasingly, a little unable to believe that she was joking with the same boyfriend that she had screamed at only a few hours earlier.

"Of course," he replied sarcastically, before continuing in a more serious tone a few moments later. "Actually, I came looking for you."

She could tell that he was in a much better mood now. So was she. Talking with Mark had really helped her. Even if all she did was make random accusations instead of actually talking about what had happened between her and Roger. And she had gained a new friend.

"Sorry, I yelled," she apologized.

"Don't worry about it," he answered tonelessy, before adding a little more sincerely, "Sorry I left."

"It's fine," she said. And it was. "Thanks for the talk, Mark. It helped."

"We didn't really talk about you," Mark pointed out.

"It still helped. And I gained a new friend in the process," she said giving him a small smile. "Good luck with Maureen."

"Thanks," Mark said returning the smile.

* * *

Feedback would be lovely, even if it's just to say "What the hell?" That was my reaction pretty much the entire time I was writing. It was supposed to be depressing and angsty. And it ended up comedic. Somewhat comedic, anyway. 


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